Homily One on Saints Cyril and Methodios, Equal to the Apostles (St. John Maximovitch)

Homily One on Saints Cyril and Methodios, Equal to the Apostles 

By St. John Maximovitch

(Delivered in Shanghai in 1941)

What a joyful cry of gratitude would burst forth from the lips of people who from birth had sat in a dark cave deprived of light, when someone, opening their gloomy dwelling, would pour into it the life-giving rays of the sun and then lead them out into freedom!

Such also should be the feeling of gratitude we experience toward the holy brothers Cyril and Methodios.

To the Slavic tribes who “sat in the land and shadow of death” (Matt. 4:16) of paganism, they brought the light of the true Faith of Christ.

To those who knew nothing of the Kingdom of Heaven, they proclaimed it and showed the way into it.

The servants of false pagan gods they made into servants of the True God!

Homily Two on the Commemoration of the Enlighteners of the Slavs and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Commemoration of the Enlighteners of the Slavs and Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“And there shall be one flock and one Shepherd.” (John 10:16)

What does this honorable, though small, gathering in the church of the First-Called Apostle on this present day signify — a gathering such as had never taken place in former years? What church celebration is being observed today?

Today the Church celebrates the memory of the two holy brothers, Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios, who enlightened the Slavic peoples with the faith of Christ, invented an alphabet for them, and translated the Holy Scriptures and church books from Greek into the Slavic language.

Until quite recently we did not honor Saints Cyril and Methodios with a special service on this day. Why then, for almost nine hundred years, was the memory of the holy enlighteners of the Slavs not especially honored in our Church? Probably because the holy brothers did not preach the Christian faith specifically to us Russians, nor did they invent the alphabet and translate the Holy Scriptures and church books specifically for us, but rather for our Slavic brethren — the Moravians, Pannonians, Czechs, Bulgarians, and others. To us these treasures came by inheritance from those Slavic tribes among whom the lust for power of the Roman Pope introduced Latin worship.

May: Day 11: Teaching 2: Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios

May: Day 11: Teaching 2:*
Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodios
 
(The Merits of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodios for the Slavs)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodios, whose memory is celebrated today, together with his brother Cyril (whose memory is celebrated on February 14), was a teacher of the Slavs, to whose race we Russians also belong in the Christian faith. He came from a noble family in the city of Thessaloniki. Having received an education in his native city, he became governor of a Slavic region in Macedonia. But his heart was not inclined toward the world and its vain pleasures. After ten years of service he withdrew to the Monastery of Polychronion on Mount Olympus, where his brother Saint Constantine soon arrived. In the year 857 both brothers were called to preach to the Slavs. In order to accomplish this great and holy work more successfully, the holy brothers created the Slavic alphabet, translated the liturgical books from Greek into the Slavic language, and for the first time introduced divine services among the Slavs in their native tongue.

Because of the slanders of the German bishops, the holy brothers were summoned to Rome as preachers of the gospel in the Slavic language, while those bishops claimed that the word of God should be read only in the three languages in which the inscription on Christ’s Cross had been written. Pope Adrian vindicated the holy brothers. Saint Cyril, exhausted by his unceasing labors, became gravely ill in Rome and soon reposed there, while Saint Methodios was elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Pannonia or Moravia and returned to his flock, where he continued enlightening the Slavs until the end of his life. He reposed in the year 885.

Prologue in Sermons: May 11

An Example of Patience and Humility

May 11

(From the Paterikon.) 

 

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

When someone unjustly offends us, insults us, or slanders us, we usually lose control of ourselves and think only of how to take revenge on our enemy, and our anger knows no end. But this is not how we should act. In such circumstances we must always keep before us the image of the suffering Savior, Who from the Cross forgave His enemies, and arm ourselves with patience and humility. Then the Lord will reveal our innocence, our enemies themselves will ask our forgiveness, and our dishonor will be turned into glory for us.

One monk asked one of the fathers: “How does the devil bring afflictions upon the saints?”

The elder answered him:

“There was a certain father named Nikon, who lived ascetically on Mount Sinai. One day a certain man came to an Egyptian who had a grown daughter, and since there was no one in the house besides her, he fell into sin with her. Afterwards he sternly said to her: ‘See that you tell everyone that it was not I who sinned with you, but Abba Nikon.’

Homily One on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (St. Justin Popovich)

Homily One on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman 

By St. Justin Popovich

(Delivered in 1965 in the Ćelije Monastery, transcribed from a recording.)

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Behold what unusual witnesses (the Lord) brings forth before us, before the face of the human race, concerning His Resurrection. Whom? Harlots! … Behold the Samaritan woman, who had changed six husbands, and the Lord made even her an Apostle and a witness of His Divine power, of His Resurrection.

Today you heard the Holy Gospel. The Savior, weary from the journey, comes to the well, and the Samaritan woman comes to draw water. Between them there unfolds a divine and wondrous conversation. The Savior reveals to the Samaritan woman the mystery of His coming into the world, the mystery of the Living Water. Around us, everything among men is dead. The Samaritan woman was astonished:

“What kind of water is this? Give me this water, Lord, so that I may no longer thirst, so that I may no longer come to this well.”

“I speak to you about the water of Eternal Life, living water… which flows into Eternal Life.”

And rightly did He say:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink, and from within him rivers of living water shall flow,” and carry him into Eternal Life.

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her: Give Me a drink” (John 4:7).

The words of the Savior to the Samaritan woman who came to the well for water should not be understood literally, but as a parable. This is evident, first, because the Lord usually spoke to the people in parables, in fulfillment of the ancient prophecy: “I will open My mouth in parables” (Matt. 13:35); and second, because He almost always turned ordinary events and experiences of daily life into opportunities to teach heavenly truths. For example, He turned the sowing of seeds in a field into a lesson about the sowing of the Word of God in human hearts, and so on. These words mean: “Woman, I thirst for your repentance and salvation, because I came to call sinners to repentance (cf. Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32) and to save them. I thirst for your eternal blessedness, for which I created you.” Or more briefly: “I deeply desire to save you; repent and follow Me.” 

“Jesus said to her: Give Me a drink.” A simple event — the arrival of a woman to draw water — the Lord used as an occasion to teach about the grace of the Holy Spirit. I too will follow my Lord. Since in this church today there are probably many who often go to draw intoxicating drink from the places that in our city continue to multiply because of human greed for money, I intend today, for the glory of God, to use this circumstance — that is, the drunkenness of the residents and visitors of this city — as an opportunity to teach about avoiding greed for wine and awakening within ourselves a thirst for the grace of God and for our salvation.

At Jacob's Well Christ Encountered the Whole Fallen World (Monk Moses the Athonite)

By Monk Moses the Athonite

In today’s Gospel passage from the Evangelist John the Theologian, we heard in our churches about the meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman beside a well…

This meeting is of especially great importance not only for the suffering woman. Christ meets the whole fallen world, even the world of today. He does not quarrel with, reject, or drive anyone away. He wishes to communicate with everyone, even the most downtrodden. Christ Himself said that He came chiefly for sinners. It is enough that they receive Him, that they open the leaves of their closed hearts to Him. He does not ask for much. A little water. Something very small, in order to become the occasion for an exit from the cage of our self-imprisonment.

At first the Samaritan woman is rather cautious. She is bound by mistaken opinions, fanatical ideas, long-standing prejudices, and therefore trapped, ensnared, blocked, and suspicious. According to her tradition, she is unable to give water to a Jew, to an enemy. Christ in truth is not greatly thirsty for water. He thirsts for the liberation of His afflicted interlocutor. The conversation begins to become fascinating and revelatory.

Nominal Christians: A Homily on the Epistle Reading for the Fifth Sunday After Pascha

By Presbyter Nikolaos Gonidakis,
Priest of the Holy Church of the Prophet Elijah, Nees Pagases, Volos

Today our Holy Church presents to us the unceasing and rapid spread of the gospel, according to the Apostolic reading (Acts 11:19–30), my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ.

A sorrowful event, the death by stoning of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen, became the occasion for the faithful to break the bonds that had confined the teaching of Christ to Judea and for its universal journey to begin.

After this murder took place, the persecution of the first believers “flared up,” with the result that they decided to leave Jerusalem and spread beyond their limited boundaries.

Thus the joyful message now reached Phoenicia, present-day Lebanon, a coastal region, the island of Cyprus, and Antioch, a historic city of the Middle East.

At first, they preached only to the Jews. But upon entering Antioch, some from Cyprus and Cyrene began speaking also to the Greeks of the region, with the result that many of them rejected idols and joined the Christian community.

Holy Apostle Simon the Zealot in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. This is Simon, who was also called Nathanael and who served as the bridegroom at the wedding to which Christ was invited with His disciples in Cana, where He also changed the water into wine. Therefore the bridegroom, after abandoning the wedding and the wine, followed the Friend and Wonderworker and Bridegroom-Leader, and he was present with the Apostles in the upper room when the Holy Spirit descended upon them in the form of fiery tongues. And after being filled with this Spirit and traveling through almost the whole earth, he set ablaze all the deceit of polytheism. He went throughout all Mauritania and Africa and preached Christ. Afterwards he arrived in Britain, and after enlightening many with the word of the gospel, he was crucified by the unbelievers, and reaching the end of his life he was buried there. And because he was possessed by burning zeal for the almighty God, he received as his surname the manner of his life.”